The Feast is mentioned once in the Gospels (Jn 10--) as the occasion of a collision between our Lord and the Jews in the temple, when He made the claim, ' I and the Father are one,' and the Jews took up stones to stone Him. The occasion of the incident is full of significance. When the Holy Place was being cleansed in B.C. 164, the question had arisen as to how the old altar ought to be treated, seeing that it had suffered from heathen pollution, and the conclusion reached was that it should not be used any more, but a new one dedi- cated in its place, and that the old one should be pulled down and its stones stored in a convenient place 'until there should come a prophet to give an answer concerning them ' (1 Mac 4*'"''^). On the anniversary of this event, some two centuries later, there stood Christ in the temple courts, and in effect, though not in so many words, the question was actually put to Him whether He was the prophet foretold. ' How long dost thou hold us in suspense ?,' they asked, ' If thou art the Christ, tell us plainly' (Jn 10^). It was, indeed, a fitting occasion on which to raise the question, since the whole Festival breathed hopes connected with the national deliverance of Maccaba;an times, looking forward to another deliverance in the future such as would come with the Messiah. Unhappily the questioners were not sincere, and would not receive the testimony of our Lord, not even when He re- ferred them to His works as proving His claims ; and so the matter ended where it began. Had they listened, they would have found the Deliverer whom they were expecting, and incidentally also they would have learned the solution of the old difficulty about the stones of the desecrated altar — that these might lie where they were, being needed no more, for there was being dedicated another Temple to supersede the old (cf. Jn 2'»).
It is not quite clear how much of St. John's nar- rative belongs to Dedication, whether the incidents of Jn O'-IO-' happened then, or whether they belong to the Feast of Tabernacles (7-). These two Feasts had much in common ; in fact, it appears that Dedication was to some extent modelled on "Tabernacles (2 Mac lO'', cf. P). In particular, the ritual of both included a special illumination, which was so marked at Dedication that, according to Josephus [Ant. xil. vii. 7), the Festival was actually called 'Lights.' In either case, therefore, there is special point in our Lord's announcement in Jn 9° ' I am the light of tlie world,' in which He pointed to the brilliant illuminations of the Temple and Jerusalem generally, \\Iietlier at Tabernacles or Dedication, and claimed that, while these lamps and candles made the city full of light, He Himself was giving light to the whole world.
Literature. — Art. ' Dedication ' in Hastings' DB and in Encyc. Bibl.; Schvirer, BJP I. i. 217 f.; Edersheim, Life arid Times of Jesus the Messiah, ii. 226, The Temple, 333 ff.
C. E. Garrad. DEFILEMENT See Purification.
DELIVERANCE (<S06<r«).-The English word does not occur in the (jo.spels, except in a quotation
438
DELR'ERA^^CE
DEMON, r)E:\IOXIACS
from the OT (see beluw), Imt the Or. word is found 8 times (in Mt 26-\ Mk V. Lk 3= 1" 24-" it is rendered ' remission ' [of sins] ; in Mk 3^ ' for^'ive- ness ' ; in Lk 4'* '"^ {a) ■ deliverance ' [AV], ' release ' [RV], (6) [to set] 'at liberty'); while the fact of deliverance underlies all that is recorded of Jesus, and has coloured the entire thought of Christianity. To think of Christ is to think of Him as Saviour. In such utterances as ' The Son of Man is come to save that which was lost' (Mt 18^'). and ' the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them ' (Lk 9*''), we have the keynote of Christ's mission. He sounds it in the beginning when.
preach deliverance to captives.' His days are passed in saving men from every slavery that binds them to the transient. This is at the root of all His acts of deliverance — even the healings. Wlien He gives physical renewal to the lame, the diseased, the dumb, the blind, the paralyzed, it is always that they may the easier find spiritual perfection. Moral and spiritual deliverance are often associated with a bodily purification — greatly to the confusion of contemporary traditionalists. They are astonished that He should say to the one sick of the palsy, ' Thy sins be forgiven thee ' (Mk 2'), or to the leper, ' Thy faith hath made thee whole' (Lk 17''). In the typical prayer taught to His disciples there is no word about life's miseries, poverty, or pain : the petition is simply ' Deliver us from evil ' (Mt 6'', Lk II'') : the soul's need being eternal outweighs the need of mind and body. And we can hardly doubt that, as He looked upon that long and sad procession of the bodily wrecks that came to Him ' at even' (Mk P=), the heart of the Missioner in Christ was kindled by the vision of souls that would be set free to fulfil better their purpose of life when the numbed or tortured body was given rest and cure. Conscious of the neces- sities of daily life, He, better than all others, knows how temporary they are, and lifts His voice continually against the soul's voluntary bondage to things material. ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God ' (Lk 12^') ; ' Lay up treasure in heaven ' (Mt 6-°) ; ' Beware, and keep yourselves from covetous- ness ' (Lk 12") ; ' If thou wouldst be perfect, go, sell that thou hast, and give to the poor . . . and come, follow me' (Mt 19-')— .such phrases indicate the deliverance from the world and its anxieties which culminates in the invitation of Jesus — ' Come unto me . . . and I will give you rest' (Mt 11^).